tion. It manifests this
peculiarity because of the volatile formic acid which it contains. This
admixed acid confers upon crude honey its preservative power. Honey
which is purified by treatment with water under heat, or the so-called
honey-sirup, spoils sooner, because the formic acid is volatilized. The
honey of vicious swarms of bees is characterized by a tart taste and a
pungent odor. This effect is produced by the formic acid, which is
present in excess in the honey. Hitherto it has been entirely unknown in
what way the substratum of this peculiarity of honey, the formic acid in
the honey, could enter into this vomit from the honey stomach of the
workers. Only the most recent investigations have furnished us an
explanation of this process. The sting of the bees is used not only for
defense, but quite principally serves the important purpose of
contributing to the stored honey an antizymotic and antiseptic
substance.

The observation has recently been made that the bees in the hive, even
when they are undisturbed, wipe off on the combs the minute drops of bee
poison (formic acid) which from time to time exude from the tip of their
sting. And this excellent preservative medium is thus sooner or later
contributed to the stored honey. The more excitable and the more ready
to sting the bees are, the greater will be the quantity of formic acid
which is added to the honey, and the admixture of which good honey
needs. The praise which is so commonly lavished upon the Ligurian race
of our honey bees, which is indisposed to sting--and such praise is
still expressed at the peripatetic gatherings of German bee-masters--is
therefore from a practical point of view a false praise. Now we
understand also why the stingless honey bees of South America collect
little honey. It is well known that never more than a very small store
of honey is found in felled trees inhabited by stingless _Melipona_.
What should induce the _Melipona_ to accumulate stores which they could
not preserve? They lack formic acid. Only three of the eighteen
different known species of honey bees of northern Brazil have a sting. A
peculiar phenomenon in the life of certain ants has always been
problematical, but now it finds also its least forced explanation. It is
well known that there are different grain-gathering species of ants. The
seeds of grasses and other plants are often preserved for years in their
little magazines, without germinating. A very small re